A Recap on Our Journey to U-town

Dallas > 4 hrs >Los Angeles >13 hrs> Taipei >7 hrs> Urumqi

Its quite a journey to get to the other side of the world.  Its truly a journey when it entails a 1 1/2 yr. old!  Thankfully, Jaden did exceptionally well.   I’m not going to lie though, I have made the trip quite a few times before without a child and caught myself thinking “what did I do with all that time?!”…”oh yea, I SLEPT!”.  Well, this trip did  not allow for much sleeping on my part.  I did catch a few cat naps during the times that Jaden slept.  But usually his sleep involved me catching him when he about rolled off the seat (I only missed once, and even then I was able to catch his head ;o) ).

But we were able to stick to Jaden’s normal sleep/eat schedule for the most part.  And when we did land at a new airport, all his sleepiness disappeared with the excitement of a new place (that allowed for more movement than a chair can afford).  Stickers became our new best friend, and these small toy cars were very entertaining.  Books and the iPad did wonders and snacks always helped pass the time.  I think I was running on adrenaline simply in wanting to survive and make the most of this journey.  Before the trip was usually seen as a means to get somewhere, ya know…bring a book, catch up on sleep.  This time it definitely had a different feel.

So proud of his backpack, but it was a bit too heavy for him to carry without falling backwards

Once we landed at 7:30 in the morning, we had to wait forever for them to find our stroller and Josh’s guitar.  But waiting has a different look as well these days…Jaden and I played hide and seek (don’t worry I kept my eyes open), we had races, we examined the luggage x-ray machine, we met all the workers (twice), tried to sneak back through customs (they were totally fine with Jaden going under the ropes but frowned when I followed) and slid down our slide made out of all our luggage pieces.  Thankfully though, they were able to find everything and we were able to move to China with NO extra charges for baggage…blessing!

Next, we found two taxis that would take us to the nearest (semi-cheap) hotel.  Jaden fully enjoyed sitting in the front seat with me.  I’m sure it was a completely different experience than his former rear-facing carseat allowed.  He pointed out all the trucks and busses he could see.  Once we got to the hotel we brought everything to our room and realized just how small it was.  It had a bathroom (that was not closed off) and then the rest of the room was a bed with just enough space to walk around it.  Once we filled it with our stuff and Jaden’s pack n play the only space was on the bed.

This is when our biggest mistake occurred.  By now it was time for Jaden’s morning nap (just before noon) and we ALL slept.  We all slept for 11 hours….Midnight came, Jaden awoke…ready to start his day.  Now if we were anywhere other than this small hotel in a city that actually sleeps, we may have been able to find stuff to do and eat.  But we were here and that’s when we realized we weren’t in Dallas anymore.  We stayed the entire “day” on our bed in that little room.  We made it through the night, he had his nap, we had saved enough food to eat meals but it was rough.  Oh yes, and then there was the bathroom.  Oh my word, it was terrible!  The smell filled the room at times (like when someone above us flushed) and there was no wall or door to close and block it.  We lasted two nights there and it was during those two nights that we thought “oh my word, what have we done?!  I can’t believe we brought our son into this environment!”.

Sleepy Jaden enjoying an apple at our second hotel room

On the third day, we were able to finally get in contact with some local friends who then helped us secure a room at a hotel that was near Josh’s school.  We gratefully moved out of our hotel and took two taxis to our new “home”.  This hotel was owned by the school so while it was still a bit pricey (about $40 a night) we hoped to stay until we found an apartment.  We were so happy to find that the bathroom was a completely separate room and we had a bit more space to move around.  So we settled in as we anticipated Josh’s classes beginning the next day and Jaden and I going out apartment hunting.

By our Father’s grace we survived the trip, the next challenge was figuring out how to find an apartment and get papers to stay